India must transform its unorganised food system: Report

India’s food system is largely unorganised and highly fragmented, a report by an American think-tank said, underlining that the country must reform government procurement, tariff and tax policies affecting urban food delivery to feed its growing cities.

The prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs in its report said that substantial public investments are needed to expand and increase the quality of storage, handling and transportation infrastructure

According to a PTI report: The prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs in its report said that substantial public investments are needed to expand and increase the quality of storage, handling and transportation infrastructure.

It said that India’s food system is largely unorganised and highly fragmented, inhibiting large-scale procurement, distribution, and retail sales.

It also recommends ways to reduce regulatory complexity and enhance food testing capacity.

To improve the supply system, the paper further identifies areas of improvement in transit, warehousing, cold chains, retail and processing that could improve urban food security in India.

“The scale of food and nutrition needed to sustain that is hard to fathom and India’s food system is already failing to deliver food security for all,” Director of the Council’s Global Food and Agriculture Programme, Alesha Black was quoted by PTI as saying.

“Now imagine when that population doubles in the next 40 years. India has to transform its food system to feed that urban growth,” he was further quoted by PTI as saying.

The report argues that the food system in India must transform to feed its growing cities.